


Parental Woes

by DarkNymfa



Series: Phic Phight 2020 [9]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Family, Family Drama, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, One Shot, Phic Phight, Phic phight 2020, danny be like... can i have human family and ghost family at the same time?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:47:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23891059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkNymfa/pseuds/DarkNymfa
Summary: Humans form families of flesh and blood, while ghosts form theirs based on connections in their cores. But what does that mean for a half-ghost?
Relationships: Clockwork & Danny Fenton, Danny Fenton & Jack Fenton & Maddie Fenton, Danny Fenton & Pandora
Series: Phic Phight 2020 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685770
Comments: 49
Kudos: 667
Collections: Phic Phight!





	Parental Woes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GoingDeceased](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoingDeceased/gifts).



> Prompt by GoingDeceased: "Clockwork and Pandora, despite Danny’s protests, start acting as ghostly parental figures. Including showing up to Casper High's parent teacher conference."

A knock sounded on the door, and Danny let himself slump down even further into the seat. He’d been hoping that his parents wouldn’t have shown up despite Lancer’s call, but alas. Should’ve figured that he wouldn’t be that lucky.

“Ah, there they are. Come in, folks, the door’s open,” Lancer called. He continued talking as the door clicked open. “I apologize for calling you two, but Danny has been…”

He trailed off, fell silent, and Danny looked up confused. And up and… up.

“Oh my god,” he groaned, resisting the urge to slam his head into Lancer’s desk. Belatedly, his core stirred in his chest, setting off his ghost sense.

“Um.” Lancer shot a quick look at Danny, but seemed reluctant to take his eyes off of the two ghosts that had entered their classroom. “I apologize, I thought you were Danny’s parents. They’ll be here soon, I expect, so it would be best if you two… left, before then.”

“They won’t be coming,” the larger of the two ghosts said, her voice low and threatening. She crossed one pair of her arms, the other hanging closely by her sides. “We are here in their stead.”

Lancer’s expression grew more panicked.

“Pandora, you can’t say it like that. You make it sound like you killed them. Why are you two here?” Danny shot the both of them an exasperated look. “This is a parent-teacher conference, and you’re not parents.”

She snorted dismissively. “We might as well be.”

“Yet I called the Fentons,” Lancer said, his voice shaky but determined. “I’m— I’m sure of that.”

“A call easily intercepted,” Clockwork dismissed, waving a hand. “We are here now, and not them. Now, shall we continue?”

“No!” Danny shoved the chair back so he could stand up. “No, you can’t just _do_ this! Stop acting like you’re my parents just because you think you’d do a better job!”

Pandora’s blue fingers tightened on her spear. Clockwork’s eyes narrowed. Lancer shot him a look that was both baffled and worried.

“Mr. Fenton…” Lancer started, cautiously. “Perhaps it would be wise to…”

“No! If they think they can go against my wishes like this, I’m gonna yell at them! In fact…” Danny stepped closer to the both of them, crossing his arms. Angled his head so that Lancer couldn’t see his eyes, and then flashed them green. “You two think you’re so much better than my actual parents, but you don’t listen to me at all! That’s kind of a vital part of being a good parent, you know!”

The two ghosts shuffled uncertainly, shooting glances at each other.

“Danny…” Pandora started, but he shushed her.

“No! You don’t get to just— butt in whenever you want! Stop messing with my life whenever you want! I have actual parents, you know, and I don’t want you two trying to replace them!”

Pandora opened her mouth again, but Clockwork gently placed a hand on her arm. “We understand, Danny. We’ll leave. Our apologies.”

“I… Yes.” Her shoulders sunk down, and her crossed arms dropped. “Sorry, Danny. It’s just…” She made an aborted sort of noise. “We’ll talk to you later.”

Danny hummed, and the two ghosts turned around. Walked out of the door like nothing weird had just happened.

He waited for a moment longer, but it seemed like they had, in fact, left. Then he sighed, heavy and gustily, and turned back to Lancer.

“So, uh. Any chance we could ignore that that just happened?”

“Daniel, are those ghosts…” Lancer paused, seeming to reconsider what he’d been about to say. “Why are they so insistent on replacing your parents? Are your parents… aware of them?”

Danny groaned, dropping back into his chair. “No, they don’t know. Well, they’ve met Pandora before, but they don’t know about—” He gestured vaguely. “This.”

“And acting like your parents?” Lancer prodded. “That doesn’t seem like normal ghost behavior.”

“You’d be shocked.” Danny shook his head. “Ghosts are actually pretty prone to adopting people, or making their own adoptive families. It’s just…” He shrugged. “They usually stick to forming families with other ghosts, so people don’t really notice it, y’know?”

Lancer quirked an eyebrow. Danny sighed. No getting out of it, then. “They’re… trying to do the same with me. They think my parents aren’t doing a good enough job, so Pandora and Clockwork have been trying to replace them. But I don’t want them to!”

“How… have your parents not noticed this?” Lancer frowned. “Even disregarding the fact that you’re spending time with strangers without them knowing, those two are also _ghosts_.”

Danny snorted. “Yeah, they’re… not the most observant. A ghost could live under their roof and they wouldn’t notice.” He paused. “I… I love them, though. They’re my parents. Even _if_ Pandora and Clockwork would be better, which I doubt they are, it’s… they’re my _parents_ , you know?”

“Have you tried… informing those ghosts about this?” Lancer shifted, a hesitance to him that Danny wasn’t used to. “Now, normally I would recommend my students to stay away from potentially violent ghosts, but…”

“They’re not _violent_ ,” Danny snapped, immediately, before ducking back into his seat. “Sorry, it’s just— I know what my parents say about ghosts, but they’re not _right_. They decided what ghosts were like before they ever met one, and now every single interaction, they twist to fit their bias. And it’s… It’s unfair. To ghosts who _aren’t_ like that.”

“Ghosts like these… Pandora, and Clockwork, and perhaps Phantom as well?” Lancer nodded, thoughtfully. “Their behavior certainly didn’t match up to my… expectations.”

“Yeah, it’s just…” He huffed. “They’re nice, you know, and they’re really helpful and stuff. But I don’t want them to butt into my life whenever they want, and I definitely don’t want them to try and _replace_ my parents.”

Lancer hummed. “Have you considered telling that to _them_?”

“Well, no, but…” He paused, groaned. “Clockwork probably knows now, anyway.”

“Disregarding that unnerving and cryptic bit of information… Danny, how long has this been going on?” Lancer wove his fingers together, staring patiently at Danny. “Between your parents’… subpar parenting, and those ghosts attempting to adopt you instead… Is this why you’ve been struggling with school?”

“Uh…” He shrugged. “Sort of, I guess? A little, at least.”

Lancer sighed, nodded. “Well, I… Normally, this is where I would offer you advice and pointed help, but I’m… not too sure what to do about this. At the very least, I can offer you an ear, but I’m not too sure…”

“It’s fine, Mr. Lancer,” Danny interrupted him. “It’s… I’m working on it. Thanks, though.”

“I will give your… problematic behavior a pass for now, considering the… circumstances.” Lancer frowned, slightly, catching Danny’s eye. “But, Mr. Fenton, I won’t be so lenient again. If something happens, please _tell_ us. Tell me, at least, and I’ll see what I can do for you. Yes?”

“Yeah, I gotcha.” Danny ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry, it’s just… kind of a mess. I don’t want word to get out about… well, _this_. You know?”

“Yes, I understand fully.” Lancer rolled his chair backwards, standing up. “You’re free to leave. Thank you for talking to me, Danny, even if it wasn’t easy.” He made a face. “Or voluntary.”

* * *

Danny ducked around a floating island, barely twisting around it. The ectoplasm in the Ghost Zone fueled him, pushed him to fly faster than usual.

Clockwork’s tower came into view before he knew it, and Danny slowed down to land in front of the door. Hesitantly he knocked, paused, then opened the door anyway. Clockwork would’ve known he was heading here.

And indeed, it seemed that he’d been expecting him, as Pandora was present too. Good.

“Danny,” Pandora greeted him, perking up. Her hair flickered, twisting into a larger flame. “It’s good to see you.”

“Yeah, I… Sorry about yelling, earlier.” He shuffled his feet, looking at her, then Clockwork. “You guys mean well, I know, it’s just… I don’t want you two to replace my parents, you know?”

“We were, perhaps… a little too forward,” Clockwork admitted, cautiously. “I… We both apologize for that, Danny. For interfering when you didn’t want us to.”

Well, now came the hard part. “I know where you’re coming from, though.” Danny sighed, ran a hand through his hair. “My parents are far from perfect, and they’re… well, _human_. I’m not… I wouldn’t be opposed to having you two as my _ghost_ parents, but not as a replacement of my _human_ parents. I… If that makes sense?”

Clockwork smiled, the expression turning his face surprisingly soft as he flew closer to Danny. “I can only speak for myself, of course, but that sounds… understandable. You are not just a ghost, after all. You need to acknowledge your human side, too. Pandora?”

“Yes, I understand completely.” She kneeled, gently patting him on the head with a finger. “We did not want to deny you your human side, Danny, but I can see how it might’ve come across as such.”

“Just… you guys pushing your way into my human life is… not great.” He pushed open Pandora’s other hand so he could sit down on it. “I’m trying so hard to keep my human and ghost sides separate, at least for the public, you know? Even if Mr. Lancer was the only one who saw, it could’ve gone _so_ wrong. And I know you two don’t like my parents, that you think that they’re not good enough for me, that they’re dangerous… but doing stuff like _that_ could’ve endangered me, too!”

“It was, perhaps, a little rash,” Clockwork allowed, his mouth tight. “I was worried about your parents responding badly to the news, but I see now how this could’ve gone wrong, too.”

Pandora raised her hand a little, putting Danny at the same height as Clockwork. She sighed. “I thought we would be able to protect you no matter what, but… of course, it would’ve been best if no protection was necessary. I’m sorry, Danny. We did not think.”

“It’s… well, not fine, but I get it.” He huffed, fidgeting with the hem of one of his gloves. “You were worried, and trying to help. And I get that! I like it! I want you two to help, to… to teach me and to, well. Act as my parents, I guess? But I don’t want to lose my _human_ parents, my original parents, along the way. And if you two just push your way in, I could lose even more than just them.”

“You’re right,” she admitted. “We should have listened to you. We had no right to take this decision from you.”

“Pandora is right,” Clockwork agreed. “It was wrong of us to insist in doing it our way. We’re ghosts, used to handling this stuff the ghost way, but that doesn’t apply to you. Not completely.”

“Well, I’m glad we can all agree on that, then.” He let himself fall backwards, lying flat on Pandora’s hand. “How about a compromise, then? About when you can come interfere, and that sorta stuff?”

Clockwork landed next to him on Pandora’s hand, his tail curling loosely around her finger. “That would be excellent, Danny.”

“What’s this, Clockwork? Physical contact?” She laughed, surprised. “Here I was, thinking that you don’t care about me.”

“Nonsense,” Clockwork denied with a wave of his arm. “I have no interest in you in _that_ way, but we both care deeply about Danny, don’t we? That alone is a clear sign of your worth.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Hold on.” Danny held up his hands, interrupting the conversation. “Are you telling me that you two don’t actually know each other? I thought— Well, you know! You’ve been trying to replace my parents!”

“Well, yes.” Pandora twisted her head, narrowing her red eyes. “We have both been trying to make you part of our families. It only made sense, then, that we work together to achieve your optimal safety and happiness. No?”

“I… I guess?” He blinked, stunned. Tried to process the revelation. “Are you telling me that you just both went _‘this is my son’_ about me and _that’s_ why you two formed a team?”

“It was either this, or a fight to decide who got guardianship,” Clockwork said, a smile on his face and laughter in this voice. “We both figured we would try it the more peaceful way, first.”

Pandora nodded. “For your benefit, mostly. Normally, ghosts would compete, unless they feel a connection between each other. But we figured that you wouldn’t want us to, and that you would be upset if you heard about us fighting over you, so…”

“You two are unbelievable.” He dropped his head into his hands and groaned. “Were you two ever gonna tell me that you didn’t actually _know_ each other? How did you two imagine a family unit working out if you two barely knew each other?”

“I… well.” Pandora hesitated, turning to look at Clockwork, who seemed equally thrown off. “It is not usually an issue among ghosts. I hadn’t… thought about it. You, Clockwork?”

“I must admit that it slipped my mind as well.” Clockwork’s hands drifted over the staff, almost fidgety in nature. “We hadn’t really… ran into any issues so far. Regarding the shared guardianship, at least.”

Danny snorted. “Right. Well, how about this. Why don’t we add shared family time into the compromise as well? Like, a set evening or whatever where we spent time together doing some sort of family activity. That way we all spent time together, and you two can get closer as well, _and_ we’ll be doing family stuff. Sound good?”

“Sounds very good to me,” Clockwork agreed, smiling at him once more. “I would enjoy that greatly. Pandora?”

“Yes, the same for me.” She raised one of her free hands to ruffle his hair again, the oversized fingers gentle and careful. “Now, as for the rest of the compromise…”

* * *

“It just makes no sense!” Jack complained, loudly, over dinner. Danny rolled his eyes, only half listening. “Those two ghosts keep being spotted with Phantom, but they don’t seem malevolent in the slightest!”

“Neither does Phantom,” Jazz pointed out, reaching past their dad to dump another spoonful of mashed potato on Danny’s plate. Rude. “The only destruction he has caused was while fighting other ghosts.”

Maddie huffed. “That’s just what he wants us to think.”

“How can you know?” Danny asked, despite himself. In his moment of distraction, Jazz dumped another spoonful of food on his plate. He glared at her, before remember what he was talking about. “I mean, if you don’t think either of the big ghosts are malevolent, what makes you think that Phantom must be?”

“He has to have some kind of ulterior motive.” Maddie clicked her tongue. “Those other ghosts are clearly trying to exercise some kind of control over him. They only come here for him. Phantom, on the other hand, is here constantly. There has to be a reason for that.”

Jazz tapped her fork on the edge of her plate, frowning in thought. “And Phantom coming here to fight ghosts doesn’t count, then?”

“There must be more to it,” Jack denied. “Either way, those two larger ghosts… That’s what really confuses me. They appear as adults, usually, contrasted by Phantom seemingly being a teenager. But their interactions… I can’t make sense of it.”

Maddie hummed. “They’re almost like parents, if not by blood. Trying to teach him, trying to guide him into doing what they think is the right thing. Lashing out towards people who appear to hurt Phantom, whether vocally or with weaponry.”

“I thought ghosts didn’t do families?” Jazz asked, shooting Danny a look. She knew about Pandora and Clockwork, of course. Had been rather excited about the prospect of him embracing his ghostly side like that, but without dismissing the human part of him. “Wasn’t that something you two said? Besides, they look way different from Phantom, don’t they?”

“Ghosts don’t have families like us, but…” Maddie halted, suddenly caught up in her thoughts.

“We’re considering the possibility that ghosts have makeshift families,” Jack finished for her, gesturing with his cutlery. “They don’t retain memories from their life, so even _if_ multiple people from the same family became ghosts, they wouldn’t know. So instead ghosts form some kind of _adoptive_ families. Or so it seems!”

“I… Yes, like Jack said.” Maddie nodded, scooping up a bite of potato on her fork. “Why they do so, however, is more of a mystery. We think that they might have some kind of instinctual desire for them. Or some ghosts do, at least. A hunkering carried over from their former human lives.”

Ha, well. Danny kind of doubted that Clockwork had ever been human, quite honestly. But his parents were actually kind of close, so he was willing to give them the benefit of doubt.

He cleared his throat. “But why? I thought ghosts didn’t do emotions? Why would they want families, then? On what ground would they make them?”

“Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?” Jack grinned, seemingly excited about Danny participating in the ghost discussion. “Why _do_ ghosts make families of their own?”

“It definitely requires further research,” Maddie agreed. “There are all kinds of factors to consider, too. Do animal ghosts carry these kind of desires too? Some other kind of instincts, carried over from their former lives? Do the _human_ ghosts have more instinctual desires, too, that they pursue?”

Jazz hummed, looking at Danny. “Yeah, I wonder too. How human are ghosts, really?”

He grinned back. “Who knows?”

* * *

“Danny,” Clockwork said, disappointment in his voice. “You can’t let kids run all over you, no matter how bad you would feel about fighting back.”

Next to him, Pandora nodded vigorously, both pairs of arms crossed. “We didn’t train you for nothing! Letting him get away without a fight will just encourage him to try it more!”

“But fighting back will just make him target someone else!” Danny protested, throwing out his hands. “I would rather have him hit _me_ than go for— for Mikey or Nathan or Tucker!”

“This isn’t the best way to help, Danny.” Clockwork drifted closer, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I understand that it is not in your nature. That it’s upsetting. But you’re not helping them by letting other kids bully you.”

“I… I guess.” Danny sighed, rolling his shoulder to dislodge Clockwork’s hand. “I’ll… keep it in mind. Thanks, Clockwork, Pandora.”

“Of course, Danny.” Clockwork took the sign and drifted further away again, a small smile on his face. “I— Ah.”

Danny only had a moment to process Clockwork’s pause when the bushes next to their clearing rustled. He took a step away from the noise, mentally reaching for his core—but his ghost sense hadn’t gone off?

The bushes parted, two familiar humans striding through. Dressed in their usual jumpsuits, teal and orange, guns clenched in their hands but not raised.

“Uh. Hi Mom, Dad.” Danny’s eyes followed their gazes to Clockwork and Pandora, who had withdrawn as well. “Um. This isn’t what it looks like?”

Maddie set a flat and incredulous gaze on him. “Daniel, we were listening to you three talk.”

He grimaced. Paused. Turned to Clockwork. “Why didn’t you warn us they were coming?”

“I…” Clockwork fiddled with his staff, running his black-gloved hands over it. “It is possible that I might have been… distracted.”

“You were too distracted by our conversation to pay attention to your future sight,” Danny realized. Finally he placed Clockwork’s expression, too. It was sheepish. _He_ was sheepish. “The Lord of Time, everybody!”

Pandora snorted, flicking Clockwork’s shoulder lightly. “Not as omnipotent as you like to pretend you are, hm?”

“I will not have this from you, Pandora ‘ _I will keep all the world’s evils in a box which even the_ Box Ghost _can steal’_ of Athens.” Clockwork pushed her hand away from him with one hand, his other gripping the staff more tightly. “Now, let us leave.”

“No, wait!” Jack stepped forward, the movement so sudden that Danny flinched and Clockwork actually paused in raising his staff. “We don’t… We just want to, uh. To talk.” All Jack’s bluster seemed to disappear over the last sentence as he, too, grew uncertain. “We… were listening. Remember?”

“I don’t… get it…” Until, suddenly, it clicked.

They had been listening to Clockwork and Pandora parent him. Parent _human_ him, regular old Danny Fenton.

“Wait. How did you even find us?” he blurted out, like _that_ was suddenly the most important thing happening here.

His parents blinked at him, and even Clockwork and Pandora shot him incredulous looks.

“We… used a ghost scanner?” Maddie raised a hand with the device in it. Ah, of course. A modified version of the Fenton Finder with a mute function. Should’ve figured. “These two,” she gestured at Clockwork and Pandora, “have powerful and clearly defined ecto-signatures, which were easily tracked. Although we were originally tracking a third too—Phantom’s.”

Hm. Well, that added another layer of complication to this situation. He was pretty sure that the Finder still picked him up in human form, too.

The silence that fell was strained and awkward.

“So, now what?” Pandora asked, her voice tight and forceful, shattering the quiet. She turned her red eyes to Danny’s parents. “What will you do now?”

“What will _we_ do?” Maddie repeated incredulously. “ _You_ have been— been trying to replace us! Have been toying with our son’s feelings! Doing— Doing something to him!”

Did they… Were they blaming Clockwork and Pandora for him being Phantom? Really?

“Mom,” he said, before she could continue ranting. “I… They haven’t done anything but help.”

“But you— and Phantom!” She looked frustrated beyond words, but— if she just _listened_ instead of assuming, he could actually _explain_ all this! “That’s—”

“Not their fault!” Danny interrupted her. “If anyone’s to blame for it, it’s me. Or maybe even you, but definitely not the two of them.” He watched his parents open their mouths and cut them off again. “It was the Portal. When it didn’t work I went to check it out. I was inside it when I accidentally turned it on.”

“But that— that would’ve killed you!” Her eyes grew wide, and next to her, so did Jack’s. “Danny…”

“I’m not dead! Just… half-ghost.” He laughed, uncertainly, awkwardly. “It, um. I know you don’t really believe that that’s possible, but, I mean. You guys were wrong about more ghost stuff, too.”

He gestured over at Clockwork and Pandora, paused, then himself as well. “With, you know, emotions and stuff. Ghost society.”

“Ghost employers,” Pandora added, grinning down at Clockwork. “Isn’t that right, Clockwork?”

The time ghost huffed, crossing his arms, looking like he was rolling his empty eyes. “Must we really talk about those ectoplasmic pests? This is about Danny.”

“We _did_ have a lot of sightings of Phantom without those two,” Jack pointed out, softly. Almost gently. “But it… why didn’t you tell us, Danny?”

“I was planning to, originally,” he admitted, lowering his eyes. “Back when you first made the Ghost Finder. I was about to tell you, but then Jazz interrupted us, and then later the Lunch Lady attacked and I fought her off. But you’d seen the ghosts, and you guys got all rabid and _‘ghosts need to be studied and torn apart molecule by molecule’_ and— and—”

His breath caught in his throat. He felt like he was choking.

“And I _know_ you wouldn’t do that to me, if you knew, because you’re my _parents_ and family comes first, always, but— But I was just—”

“Scared,” his mom finished for him, when he couldn’t. “You were _scared_ of us. Oh, honey, I…”

She stepped forward, then hesitated. Like she wasn’t sure she was allowed to come near him.

Danny crossed the rest of the distance, wrapping his arms around her. Buried his face in the crook of her neck. “And I _know_ I don’t have to be, that it’s irrational, that you’re not like that, but…”

Another pair of arms wrapped around the two of them, massive and warm. Danny looked up to see his Dad, expression sad and solemn. “Danny-boy, I… We never wanted to make you feel like you had to fear us. We… Oh, no wonder that you had to seek out the support of ghosts!”

“It’s not like that,” Pandora corrected, surprisingly gently. “Danny wasn’t the one to seek us out. Quite the opposite, in fact. No matter how much Clockwork and I pushed, to adopt him like us ghosts do, Danny refused. He wanted us, but he didn’t want us as _replacements_. He wanted _you_ , too.”

“Daniel struggled immensely,” Clockwork tagged on, voice quiet and stoic. “Half-ghosts are rare beyond belief, and they are all… unique. They all face their own struggles, stuck between two worlds, never quite fitting in. Danny had some support from his human side—his friends, his sister, and, to some extent, even you. But his support from the ghostly side was… lackluster. There was the occasional alliance, but none of those lasted very long.”

Danny hummed, slowly removing himself from the hug so he could look at his parents properly. “I… Clockwork was the first ghost to go out of his way to help me. And Pandora, later, did the same. It’s… It’s normal for ghosts, I guess, to form makeshift little families like that. To grow close to someone and decide that the other is your family; your sibling, your parent, your kid.”

“That’s what Clockwork and I had,” Pandora added. “The both of us had looked at Danny, struggling but trying _so hard_ to help, to be the best version of himself. And we both knew, in our core, that this young ghost was ours. A son. To help, to protect, to train.”

Clockwork nodded, slowly. His fingers were clenched tight around the staff. He was nervous, Danny realized. “Young Danny is… extraordinary. Ghosts are not good or bad, just like humans are not strictly good or bad. But Danny… Danny is _grand_. He is not perfect, no, but always strives for improvement. His desire to help, even at tremendous costs to himself…”

The corner of Clockwork’s mouth twisted into a wry smile. “It is not a feeling you can really describe, in terms a human can understand. It is something deep inside your core.” Clockwork placed a gloved hand on his own cloaked chest. “It’s a click, a connection. When I first aided Danny, I helped him unwind the possible futures that laid in front of him. Helped him prune off the worst ones. That’s when I knew that I would break the rules a thousand times for him.”

“He came to me, to my kingdom deep in the Ghost Zone,” Pandora started, when Clockwork finished talking. “The Box Ghost had stolen an artifact of incredible value from me. And rather than destroy it, like Danny surely could, he came to me. Asked me to help him stop the Box Ghost, so he could return the artifact to its rightful owner. To _me_. And I knew, then, that I would fight anything—and anyone—for the right to call him my son.”

“They didn’t even know each other, back then,” Danny elaborated, grinning uncertainly. “And normally, ghosts would fight over that sort of thing, you know? If they don’t know each other, they won’t want to share guardianship. And that makes sense, I guess. If it’s your kid, you wouldn’t want a complete stranger to have their hands on him, too.”

His mom frowned, turning to look at Clockwork and Pandora. “They seem plenty close to me, though.”

“We knew Danny wouldn’t want us to fight.” Pandora pressed the fingertips of one pair of hands together, dropping the other pair loosely by her sides. “And we figured, if the both of us felt such a connection with someone as good as Danny… then the other must be alright, too. And Danny…”

“Danny deserved the best he could get,” Clockwork finished for her. “If the world thought it fit for him to have two ghostly guardians of incredible strength by his side, well. We figured it was a just replacement for the human parents that hunted him.”

Jack and Maddie stiffened visibly.

“I didn’t want that, though.” Danny sighed, ran a hand through his hair. “I wanted _them_ , yes, but I wanted you two too. Pandora and Clockwork are my… my ghostly guardians. My ghost parents, to use their terms. But you two are my _real_ parents, my human parents. I want…” He sniffled, suddenly, and wondered when he’d started tearing up.

“I want both,” he admitted, wiping a hand past his eyes. “Because I’m half human, and half ghost, right? So I can have parents for both sides. Right?”

“I… oh, honey.” Maddie’s voice was soft, teary. “We… We didn’t realize… We didn’t even notice any of this happening, Jack!”

Jack wrapped an arm around Maddie, the two of them visibly itching to come closer, to comfort him. “Danny, I… We messed up. We could’ve lost you—we almost _did_ lose you—and we didn’t even notice. Oh, kiddo.”

“And we would’ve deserved it,” Maddie tacked on, pressed against Jack. “For everything we’ve said, everything we’ve done—and not done. We didn’t even notice we were losing you.”

“I didn’t want to lose you two, either,” Danny admitted, creeping in closer. “Can I…”

They drew him into the hug before he could even finish the question. In his chest, his core chirped and churned and _purred_ , whirring a tone of pleased-sad-upset- _family_.

“We love you, honey,” his mom told him, quietly. “And we’re so, _so_ , sorry.”

“I know,” he whispered back. “I love you too, with all my heart, with all my core.”

But it churned, also, upset over the fact that two more parents were lingering far away. “But I… Clockwork and Pandora are mine, too. I can’t… I can’t pick.”

“You won’t have to,” Jack promised him, one massive hand ruffling his hair—although not nearly as massive as Pandora’s. “You were right. You’re human, and ghost, and you shouldn’t repress one side in favor of the other.”

“Besides…” Maddie drew back a little, looking at the two ghosts. “Having proper ghost experts around would be… good. Should you ever run into ghost-related issues, well… Clearly our research isn’t good enough.”

Danny grinned, cheerfully. “Can they—”

Jack nodded, gesturing over at Clockwork and Pandora. And, hesitantly, the two ghosts came closer.

“Come on!” Jack encouraged, his tone cheerful and just a tad forced. “We’re connected by our love for Danny, aren’t we?”

“That, we are,” Clockwork agreed, slowly. He floated up next to Danny, just shy of touching anyone. “It would be my pleasure to help you however possible, for Danny’s benefit.”

“Prude,” Pandora scolded lightheartedly, wrapping her four massive arms around their entire group. Forcibly drew Clockwork against the rest. “But he’s right. I, too, will do whatever I can to help Danny.”

“Good.” Maddie untangled one hand, softly ruffling Danny’s hair. “I never want to hurt Danny ever again, even on accident.”

“Amen,” the other three echoed, their voices almost synchronous.

And this? This, Danny could get used to.

Even if it wasn’t perfect yet, his human parents clearly wary of his ghostly parents, this was… this was leagues better than anything he could’ve ever predicted.

Laughter bubbled up from deep inside him, and he let it.

Next parent-teacher conference with Mr. Lancer was going to be a _riot_.

**Author's Note:**

> Ghosts are actual serial adopters, more at 10. Nah but for real, I imagine they're really big on the found family stuff, even if it doesn't quite work the same as I wrote it for this fic. Also Danny has such strong "baby boy needs to be protected" energies that he got adopted by two extremely powerful ghosts at once.
> 
> One thing that I didn't end up writing into the fic is that Danny has absolutely done the same thing with Dani! The first time he saw her in her ghost form his core immediately went "this is baby sister", which was very confusing for Danny because, uh, that's his cousin? Not baby sister? Dani, conversely, would've been confronted with her core going "big brother!" over Danny, when she knew she was supposed to hand him over to Vlad for painful experimenting.


End file.
